State and University

Increasingly, the "state" and the "university" feel like a nightmare mix of oil and water.  Perhaps because I'm currently working at a university in a state with a $13 BILLION deficit and previous governors in prison, I have gotten cynical. On the other hand, there's the evidence....

The union that represents the civil servant employees of the state has begun to scrutinize every position to determine whether the position is a civil servant job. Sounds good and well. But, because of that huge budget deficit, nearly all employees who have been hired in the past 10 years are funded by grant dollars, not state dollars. The job descriptions are based on the needs of the grant. Faculty who would have been hiring staff to fill these grant funded positions are now being required to rewrite the job description to fit existing civil servant jobs. Okay. But, that means any, ANY, civil servant can apply for the job. That wouldn't be too bad, but these are employees who never get fired, just move from position to position. The attitude of entitlement is antithetical to the attitude of grant investigators who want THE best, not whoever has stayed in the system. Faculty with grants are now having to spend their valuable time crafting and recrafting job descriptions. This is not even remotely why I got a PhD nor why I joined up to be faculty. But, dealing with this type of issue is now part of my reality.

As if that were not enough, the state legislature passed a law that went into effect January 1. The law is meant to address the "pay to play" problem. For those of you not in Illinois, this refers to the bribery system that developed and refers to paying favors to get contracts to do work for the state. The University never-repeat, never-had this problem. Yet, the University must now abide by the law that requires us to report every time we talk to some one about buying something. Yes, just talk and get a quote. If we need lab equipment and get a quote, there will be paperwork. If we call in advance to find out how much a lunch function will cost, that must be reported.  As faculty, we must now comply with this state law. The truly laughable part is that the offices that will be managing all of these reports doesn't know the basic details  for actual implementation nor is the reporting system functional. As all of this was discussed at the all faculty meeting today, there was more than a little agitated head shaking and groaning. Again, I did not get a PhD so that I could justify every interaction needed to make a smart purchase for my grant.

These problems are symptoms. The world in which the University has functioned for centuries seems to no longer value the uniqueness of the University. Higher education and the organizations that provide it are just part of the Illinois state bureaucracy.  I feel like it's time for either a funeral or separation from the state. I wish I had better news for this week's post. I'm only sharing and revealing the realities for which one can not ever be prepared.